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Angéline Rouers

Senior Research Fellow, A*STAR Infectious Diseases Labs

Expertise: Immunology, Human immunodeficiency virus

Washington Times article by Robert Malone and Peter Navarro relies on inaccurate and unsubstantiated claims about virus evolution, vaccine immunity, and COVID-19 vaccine safety

“This article has inaccuracies throughout with a clear view to push an anti-vaccine agenda. The picture depicting a skull with eyes and nose made of coronaviruses in the shape of the U.S. is sensationalist. The opening line calls it Biden’s strategy. It was also Trump’s and is the strategy of every country and the WHO.”

Potential role for T cells in COVID-19 immunity accurately reported in National Geographic article

“The article accurately discusses the recent findings about the presence/relevance of T cell response against COVID-19. Indeed, both arms of adaptive immunity, humoral and cellular, contribute in different ways to the body’s fight against viral infections. What remains to be seen and explored in greater detail is how important the role of antigen-specific T cells is in protecting people from a re-infection or ameliorating the disease symptoms.”

New York Times accurately reports vaccine-derived polio outbreaks caused by low vaccine coverage

“The content of the article is correct: attenuated polio strain type 2 contained in the oral vaccine can – in very rare cases – mutate and cause disease in under-immunized persons. However it might be good to specify that if the vaccine coverage is good, this will not happen (so the vaccine coverage has to be maintained, since it has prevented 13 million cases since 2000, according to the WHO).”

Article claiming vaccines cause autoimmunity and autism due to fetal DNA contaminants found unsupported and implausible

“While the letter provides some concerns about the fetal cell-derived DNA contamination in vaccines, it does not provide any actual evidence to support the claims made. The whole hypothesis of the author (which is misleadingly presented as fact) is based on the author’s own measurements of fetal cell-derived DNA, which has serious methodological problems that could be easily prevented by RNase treatment”